Writing in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, the Russian official
said that Western powers “have been
trying to compel Ukraine to make a painful choice between east
and west, further aggravating internal differences,”
referring to the EU-Ukraine cooperation agreement that sparked
the stand-off that led to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovich.

The political part of the agreement has now been signed by the
interim government.

Contrastingly Lavrov said that "Russia has done more than any
other country to support the independent Ukrainian state,
including for many years subsidizing its economy through low
energy prices."

Instead of closer cooperation with the EU, Lavrov said Ukraine
should implement “real constitutional reform, which would
ensure the legitimate rights of all Ukrainian regions and respond
to demands from its south-eastern region to make Russian the
state's second official language; firm guarantees on Ukraine's
non-aligned status to be enshrined in its laws, thus ensuring its
role as a connecting link in an indivisible European security
architecture; and urgent measures to halt activity by illegal
armed formations of the Right Sector and other ultra-nationalist
groups.”

In recent days, Russia has been advocating federalization, which
would give greater autonomy to the Russian-speaking eastern part
of the country. Politicians in Kiev have rejected the move,
saying that it would open a backdoor path for those territories
to secede from the country, and possibly join Russia.

These calls have become particularly resonant after anti-Kiev
demonstrators occupied various key government buildings in major
eastern urban centers of the country over the past two days. In
Donetsk, activists declared the region “an independent
republic” and asked Russia to send in “a peacekeeping
corps.”

Acting President Aleksandr Turchinov accused Moscow of staging a
“special operation” to splinter Ukraine. He also
threatened to increase penalties for separatism and said that
protesters bearing arms will be treated as terrorists.

Moscow has rejected accusations of meddling.

“Stop blaming Russia’s for all of Ukraine’s problems.
Ukrainian people want to hear meaningful answers from official
Kiev,” said a statement on the foreign ministry’s website,
which warned that Ukraine would “face new crises and
difficulties” unless its “irresponsible"
politicians make the necessary reforms to pacify its eastern
regions.

Moreover, Russia’s upper legislative assembly, the Federation
Council, said that Moscow has no plans to send troops to Ukraine
without a go-ahead from the UN Security Council, but noted that
it has internally sanctioned Vladimir Putin’s use of force on
Ukrainian territory.